2 Annals Entomological Society of America [Vol. X, 



in Europe in these dreadful days? It is true that science is 

 being accused as the handmaiden of war, is blamed for the 

 many diabolical inventions for taking human life; but these 

 things are aside from the great current of scientific thought, 

 and it would be equally just to accuse language, which is at the 

 very root of human progress, because forsooth it has been the 

 vehicle of every hateful emotion. 



The pursuit of science, by which we mean the effort to under- 

 stand nature, is akin to religion, because it enables us to see the 

 world as part of the universe and ourselves and our affairs as 

 particular examples of universal phenomena. We do not 

 thereby lose our self respect; on the contrary, it should be 

 increased by the consciousness of having a part in the affairs of 

 the cosmos. It is some such feeling as this, not usually defined 

 in words, which keeps the naturalist to his task. People ask 

 him, why do you labor over that microscopical animal, of no 

 apparent interest to any one? They might as well ask a brick- 

 layer why he thinks it worth while to lay any single brick of 

 -some mighty building. 



The general sense, the pious belief, that every part of the 

 scientific structure is worth while, has been greatly heightened 

 in recent years by researches in genetics. It is a marvelous 

 thing that we can reason from Mendel's peas to human life; 

 that Jenning's protozoa should be significant for the study of 

 sociology. Thus we come to the conviction that even a fossil 

 cockroach from the coal mines of Pennsylvania has some story 

 to tell which may serve us in our day. Entomologists are not 

 as humble as they were in my young days, but I fear they do 

 not yet appreciate the full significance of their science in relation 

 to the philosophy of life. The enormous variety of insect life, 

 exhibiting innumerable adaptations to all sorts of conditions, 

 gives us unparalleled opportunities. What New York is to the 

 sociologist, the class Insecta must be to the naturalist. A 

 single species of insect, Drosophila melanogaster, has enabled 

 Morgan and his associates to largely reconstruct our ideas 

 concerning the mechanics of heredity; to give us well ascer- 

 tained facts in place of much vague speculation. 



It is, however, from the comparative morphology and physi- 

 ology of insects that we may expect to learn most about the 

 phenomena of evolution. I recall being present several years 

 ago at a meeting at Boston, when Professor J. C. Bradley 



